Wilberforce, Ohio
The administration claimed at a fiscal and
political crisis left it with no choice but to take the actions it did.
However, the Central State University (CSU) faculty union has won a
series of legal victories over the past few weeks that could pose new
financial problems for the state’s only historically Black institution
of higher education.
The issues of contention, which were settled by binding
arbitration, involved salaries and layoffs. Although administrators
said they are still assessing the potential cost of the decisions, CSU
President John Garland acknowledged that there is not enough money in
the university’s $24.4 million annual operating budget to pay the back
salary and other awards prescribed by the arbitrators.
But Garland has approached officials from the American Association
of University Professors (AAUP) and assured them that he will explore
other avenues to try to find the funds to resolve the cases.
In a separate case, the CSU chapter of the AAUP won an Ohio Supreme
Court decision declaring unconstitutional a state law that dictated
faculty workload.
Robert Marcus, president of CSU’s faculty union, said the
arbitrators’ decisions regarding faculty pay and layoffs “enforce our
contract, and that’s what was important.”
The contract between CSU’s faculty union and the university calls
for unresolved grievances to be decided by binding arbitration.
